


Staccato

by ax100



Series: That MakoHaru Hair-Washing Series [2]
Category: Free!
Genre: Hair Washing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-03-03 14:12:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13342914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ax100/pseuds/ax100
Summary: In which Haruka gets his hair washed by Makoto.(Companion piece to my other work,"Overflow")





	Staccato

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, everyone! It's Ax here again ^_^ I know I'm supposed to be working on my Voltron fics but welp, this is what came out today LOL.
> 
> In any case, I'm actually quite excited for having finished this fic, as there's quite a bit of history behind it. Back in 2013, I wrote a fic called ["Overflow"](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1028380) which is Makoto's POV as he washes Haruka's hair (and makes a few realizations). Now, apparently, I had also started writing a sequel/companion piece to that fic soon after! However, I never finished it, and so it sat on my hard drive for the next 4 years. I found it again as I was cleaning up old files last month, and I was shocked! I had absolutely no recollection of having written this! And it was 3/4 done by the time I found it, so I really only had to add a little more and end it.
> 
> It had been on my to-do list for a while, but I've been super busy lately, and completing it today was really just a spur of the moment thing after rereading a bunch of old Free! fics I really liked back then. Well, thank God for spur of the moment decisions because now I can finally put this series to rest!
> 
> Okay, enough of my yapping. Enjoy the fic!

They were already late. Haruka knew this.

"Come on, Haru-chan," Makoto said, offering his hand to him, like he always did. "The others are already waiting for us."

A couple of days ago--maybe a week if someone really was counting--the team had decided, upon Nagisa's suggestion (and persistence), to go and watch a movie together to celebrate the start of summer vacation. In the same breath, he had even said that they ought to invite Rin, and there was just a moment's hesitation that dissipated upon Rei's immediate approval.

The others were thankful for it. They all knew that Rin and Rei weren't exactly friends (and 'acquaintances' was actually being generous already), and they all appreciated that Rei wasn't letting it get in the way of the rest of team spending time with a precious friend of theirs. None of them really knew how to make it up to him, but someday...someday, they'd figure it out.

The days following that had been a bit of a blur, with final exams and project deadlines looming left and right. They had even called off practice that week so they could all focus on academics--not that it had stopped Haruka from rushing to the pool after dismissal every afternoon, with an exasperated Makoto trailing behind him. In many ways, the past week had felt like a race, and all of them had just barely barreled down the finish line.

They were all tired, to say the least, and in the end, the movie became something for all of them to look forward to.

That day was today, and they were late--or rather, _Haruka_ was late. The others were probably already inside the theater, munching on popcorn, already sufficiently engrossed in the story, but Makoto was here, with him, standing in his bathroom and holding out his hand like he belonged there and there was nothing wrong with this.

Nothing _was_ wrong with this. It was all a very familiar scene and Haruka--though he'd never say it out loud--took a sense of comfort from it. But that comfort came with a price: It scared him to think what would happen to him if these little familiarities ceased. And though, objectively, he knew that Makoto would never abandon him-- _he had promised him, sworn to him that he never would_ \--Haruka couldn't help but picture that scenario every so often in his head.

It would break him. He knew that much. And some part of him was frightened by just how plausible the situation was.

Makoto had become so ingrained in his life that losing him would be equivalent to losing himself.

It was strange, admittedly, to be thinking of those kinds of things while the object of those very thoughts was right in front of him, but these were thoughts that crossed Haruka's mind more often than he'd openly admit.

"Drop the '-chan.'" The quiet chide lacked its usual force, even to Haruka's ears. He stared at the wall in front of him, noting from the corner of his eye how Makoto's expression changed into one of confusion.

"Haru?"

That fear...

_("It's useless if it's not you!")_

"Something wrong?"

_("I want to swim with you, Haru!")_

...he had to quell it.

"No, nothing," he responded somberly.

_But how?_

Makoto blinked owlishly at him, obviously not used to this behavior, before saying, "Then...get out of the tub and let's go. The others have gone ahead already to the movie without us, you know."

"...hair."

"Sorry?"

"My hair," Haruka answered, locking gazes with green eyes, hoping that Makoto would understand--in that way that only Makoto could--what he meant beneath it all. "I still haven't washed my hair."

Makoto looked _floored._ He pulled his expression up into a tentative sort of smile as he suggested, "Then...wash it?"

Haruka stared at him for a few seconds, admittedly a bit disappointed. Still, he couldn't blame him. No matter how long he and Makoto had known each other, there were still times that Makoto wouldn't be able to read between the lines, and as they got older, the space between those lines had just gotten thinner and thinner--harder to read. It was too much to expect that Makoto would be able to correctly guess what he was thinking 100% of the time--the boy was no mind reader, after all, but Haruka couldn't help but feel a little let down at that.

He sighed quietly and went back to staring at the wall.

A few moments of silence passed as Makoto tried to decipher the situation, putting a hand on his chin, staring at Haruka intently. He said nothing to betray what was going on in his head until he suddenly exclaimed an "Ah!" that startled Haruka out of his own stupor. Haruka moved to glare at him, but was now faced eye level with Makoto's forest green eyes, an almost smug smile on his face.

"Could it be..." he started, a teasing tone to his voice now, "...that you want me to wash your hair for you?"

The thoughts in Haruka's head were wiped away, but he really shouldn't have been that surprised, considering it was Makoto, after all.

"Am I right, Haru-chan?" Ah, now he was just being mean.

"...Hn," was Haruka's non-committal, take-it-as-you-see-it answer, though he couldn't deny the elated rush he felt that Makoto had, once again, seen right through him.

"Alright, come on then."

When Haruka looked, Makoto was holding out his hand to him again, and this time, he took it. He stood up and there was a moment when he felt far too heavy, but it immediately passed as the water poured off him and noisily fell back into the tub. He stepped out of it and onto the cool tile floor, and his gaze, which was directed at the floor, shifted onto Makoto's socked feet.

"What is it?" Makoto asked.

"Your pants will get wet."

He laughed it off, saying, "It'll be fine. I just have to be careful," before bending down to roll his pants up. Haruka watched him do this for a moment before moving over to the shower area.

As he pulled up the low wooden stool that sat there, his mind buzzed with the thoughts running through his head. Why was he doing this? Why was he asking Makoto to do this? But in any case, why should he find it strange? They used to do this for each other when they were younger. He shouldn't find it strange. It was just normal, even if they hadn't done this for many years already.

"Ready?"

The question was unexpected, just as the proximity of the mouth asking it was to his ear, and Haruka almost jumped, but he was able to steel himself into loosening the tension in his shoulders as he processed what was being of asked of him in his head. He had been so distracted that he hadn't noticed that Makoto had already positioned himself behind him.

"Un," he said with a slight bob of the head.

In the silence that enveloped both of them, Haruka hoped that the sound of his rapidly beating heart, pounding in his ears, was not being carried through the humid summer air in that quiet bathroom.

There was a moment of stillness that made Haruka hold his breath for the briefest of moments before Makoto got right to the task, at first tentatively threading his fingers through Haruka's hair before gaining confidence and shifting them around, deliberately carressing the bed of skin underneath it all, lulling Haruka into a state of relaxation.

This...this was familiar too.

Haruka stared at the faucet in front of him, looking but not really seeing it. Instead, what he _was_ seeing were memories from a past so long ago that they were almost forgotten. Hazy, and in minute detail, he could see the shower rooms at the now non-existent Iwatobi Swim Club, could hear the _fssshhh_ of showers running and the _pit-pat_ of feet, running where they weren't supposed to, the boisterous laughter of children, the clang of lockers being closed, _the gentle voice, still high and unbroken by puberty, telling him to keep his eyes closed--_

"Tch," he couldn't help the quiet yelp that came out of his mouth as his eyes suddenly started burning, jerking away from Makoto's touch to swipe a forearm across his eyes.

"Sorry, did I get it into your eyes?" Makoto asked, sounding alarmed and apologetic at the same time.

"It's okay," Haruka replied, since the answer to that question was fairly obvious. When simply wiping the substance away didn't work, he blindly reached forward and opened the faucet, gathering the water that spilled out into his palm and splashing it onto his face. He rapidly blinked the water out of his eyes, satisfied with the outcome, and he breathed out, but Makoto's next statement knocked the wind right out of his lungs.

"Why don't you face me?"

Immediately, he whipped his head round and fixed Makoto with a stare. A mixture of emotions bubbled up deep in his stomach. They had done this before, oh yes, but never facing each other.

"Ah, well, uh...It'd be easier for me to make sure I'm not getting anything in your eyes," Makoto reasoned, a sheepish smile on his face.

Haruka's heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest any minute now, and some stupid part of him nervously thought that maybe if he was facing Makoto, the green-eyed boy would be able to hear it. Despite that, though, Haruka stamped out that ridiculous thought and turned to face him, and he thought that maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all now that they were bigger. Their knees clunked together in an inelegant fashion and their toes shifted against each other--Makoto's dry ones with Haruka's cold, damp ones.

Haruka leaned forward, offering his head the same way that Makoto always offered his hand, and closed his eyes, and suddenly, the air seemed too thin. Suddenly, he felt like he couldn't breathe--like there was no air to breathe.

_What--_

And then he could feel Makoto's fingers thread through his hair again, and it was like lightning suddenly struck through him and he could breathe again, the same moment that Makoto jumped back, taking his touch with him.

Confusion washed over Haruka for a moment. _Had Makoto felt that too?_

"Oi, Makoto, you alright?" he asked, his eyes still closed. As he said it, he could practically feel the spaces Makoto had carved through his hair just a moment ago, his scalp tingling from the absent touch.

"Y-Yeah," the other boy answered. "It was nothing."

Haruka didn't know what to make of it, but he let it slide. Steadily, he let the tension leave him, breathing slowly--in and out, in and out...

And there they were again--Makoto's hands, carding through his hair, stiffly at first, but steadily getting more confident as the minutes wore on.

Time seemed to pass slowly in that bathroom, like the moment was held in a state of suspended animation, like the world outside this space did not exist. At least, that's how it was to Haruka. To him, it was just this room. It was just the two of them and the shift of gentle fingers through his hair. It was just the contact of their knees, the touching of their toes, the puff of warm breath upon his skin--

In this moment, it was just him and Makoto.

_No..._

It had _always_ been just him and Makoto.

The realization hit him and stole the breath from his lungs. And there it was again--the thudding of his heart in the depths of his chest. Could Makoto hear it? The stark staccato of a heart in love, beating against the rhythm of fingers deftly weaving through his hair?

"Makoto?" Haruka started, praying that he wouldn't be able to hear the shaking of his voice. To realize that you've been in love with your childhood best friend since the beginning was enough to send anyone into a tailspin--to realize it in the bathroom, of all places, as said friend carded his fingers through your hair, was not ideal to say the least. "Are you done yet?"

He needed to think this through--a sentiment that would've made anyone gawk at him in disbelief, surely: Nanase Haruka, blunt and tactlessly honest, who had stripped down and jumped into an aquarium at a supply store, _needed time to think?_

Yes. Yes, he needed time to think, was the simple matter of the fact. This was _Makoto_ , he was talking about. Haruka had always known that Makoto was an important person to him-- _the_ most important person to him, in fact. He'd sooner commit himself to a sedentary, swimming-free life on land than do anything that would ever hurt Makoto. He'd sooner bury these newly-realized desires beneath a mask of stoicism than lose him. He had always known that losing Makoto would be a blow he'd never be able to recover from. And now that he had realized just how deeply his feelings for him ran, Haruka was afraid that this was just the thing that would ruin everything they had built together.

"Just one more thing," Makoto replied.

The first touch of soapy fingers upon his cheeks sent a shock right through him. His eyes flew open, and he felt all the static in his head die away as he felt Makoto lean in.

In this space, there was only the two of them, and time seemed to proceed both too fast and too slow. Gentle hands were cupping his face, foreheads touching, noses brushing against each other, warm breath ghosting over his lips--

They were already late. Haruka knew this.

And as he closed his eyes and kissed the boy he loved back, he decided that he didn't care. The others could wait a little longer.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! <3
> 
> If you ever want to chat, hmu @ ax100 on tumblr!


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